This is true of most hackathons in my experience, just to a lesser degree since each team is generally free to make whatever solution they see fit. It's all in

This is true of most hackathons in my experience, just to a lesser degree since each team is generally free to make whatever solution they see fit. It's all in the pitch–you can pitch an entirely theoretical app you made a couple UI mocks in Figma for or you can develop the app end-to-end. I've seen both methods be successful. I personal prefer the route of making the app end-to-end, you get a big "wow" factor with judges when you let them drive the laptop and take it for a spin rather than just following the happy path yourself. But I also make sure to set aside time to practice pitching since a bad pitch will effectively ruin our chances.